"...common sense, indeed humility as well, as a corrective to scientific arrogance was often lost in this crisis."

Victor Davis Hanson writes in part in American Greatness,

...If I called my car mechanic and explained that I had a bad knock in my engine in the middle of night in the middle of nowhere, he likely would tell me ways to risk driving home, even if possibly hurting the engine, given the lose-lose proposition of spending the night in an unsafe area—in a way our media class seemed to have little clue that hydroxychloroquine for those who cannot breathe need not be certified as 100 percent efficacious in their effort to inhale one more day.

...Given past misadventures in times of crisis from Woodrow Wilson’s wartime de facto suspension of the First Amendment to FDR’s internment of Japanese-Americans, one should not advocate instituting a national register of the infected and recovered, as some sort of super citizenry and then entrust such knowledge to what we know of the civil liberty sensitivities of Silicon Valley—all because a Bill Gates or Anthony Fauci believe their expertise leads them to think it may be a good idea.

...In other words, common sense, indeed humility as well, as a corrective to scientific arrogance was often lost in this crisis. One day the Imperial College in London was lauded as Einsteinian, the next it appeared Vegas-like.

Every young scholar is now faced with the dilemma of writing the truth as the evidence compels him to do, or venturing into weaponized speculation that is far more likely to win him peer approbation and career enhancement, even as it insidiously bankrupts his discipline.

...Whatever the end result of this crisis, few at the WHO, CDC or the state health directors are going to lose their jobs in a way the small restaurateurs and Uber drivers most certainly will.

Read more here.

"Man is godlike and therefore proud. He becomes even more godlike when he humbles himself."

Bill Vallicella writes in Maverick Philosopher,

Man is godlike and therefore proud. He becomes even more godlike when he humbles himself.

The central thought of Christianity, true or not, is one so repellent to the natural human pride of life that one ought at least to entertain the unlikelihood of its having a merely human origin. The thought is that God humbled himself to the point of entering the world in the miserably helpless and indigent way we in fact do, inter faeces et urinam, and to the point of leaving it in the most horrendous, shameful, and excruciating way the brutal Romans could devise, and from a most undistinguished spot, a hill in an obscure desert outpost of their empire.

Do you know what Charles Koch stands for?

Why does the Left hate this man? Helping people help themselves. Permissionless innovation. Get rid of corporate welfare. Freedom of speech. Help children learn their aptitude. Integrity, humility, work ethic, responsibility, courage. The left hates Mr. Koch like we on the right hate George Soros. Mike Rowe interviews Charles Koch.

Test, and then make it better

Seth Godin is thinking today about testing.

Writing the first draft of a computer program is easy. It's the testing that separates the professional from a mere hack. Test and then, of course, make it better.

The same thing is true with:

Restaurant recipes
Essays
Web user interface
Customer service
Management techniques
Licensing agreements
Strategy
Relationships of all kinds

The reason it's so difficult to test and improve is that it requires you to acknowledge that your original plan wasn't perfect. And to have the humility and care to go ahead and fix it.

No fair announcing that you're good at starting things. The world is looking for people who are good at polishing them until they work.

What if I'm wrong about this?

How am I going to live up to this? How an arrogant guy got humble.

But wait: narcissism works! Obama has this disorder of the mind, in which he can't separate his inner world from the outer world. When you achieve your goals, you realize you are still this empty person inside.

Obama doesn't want to admit failure. He wants the ego boost.

Modesty allows you to stay over the target of the truth, by not being anchored to this arrogant position of "this is what I believe, and I've stopped thinking. I've come to my conclusion."

Deal with it!

At PJ Media Susan Goldberg writes a letter to her son.

Our hopes for you focus on two ideas: loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself.

When you can embrace these two concepts, you will understand humility. When you embrace humility, you will be a greater blessing that reaches more souls than any social justice warrior’s lame hashtag or 15 minutes-of-fame cause ever could.

We could bullet-point a list of parental goals and benchmarks, but we’re just going to remain humble, pray for guidance and follow God’s lead. (And not bore you to death.) This is what we pray you will do, because if you walk in the way God has for you, you will change the world.

And those annoying SJW kids you’ll meet along the way will just have to deal with it.

Read more here.

Gender is not enough

Lesley Leyland Fields writes,

A man or woman, a boy or girl who tends toward the features considered “the other” may question his or her identity in a way that may not have happened a few decades ago.

It seems to me that men are hit particularly hard on this, from two directions. Women and girls enjoy a generous allowance that encourages the athlete, the supermodel, the CEO and the mother as equally valid expressions of femaleness. Many parents, like me, encourage our daughters to be pitchers and point guards (and fishermen) rather than princesses. But cultural expectations of masculinity are far more stingy. If a man is gentle, compassionate, artsy, empathetic, cultivates beauty in his life, talks with his hands, enjoys the friendship of women, his masculinity and sexuality is instantly questioned.

Nor are the stereotypes themselves gender equitable. After suffering generations of sexism, women fare much better than men under the current spotlight. Women are lauded for their neural plasticity; are seen as flexible, cooperative, compassionate, honest. Women outpace men in higher education, in employability, and in a score of other measures. And at the movies, they’re as glamorous and sexy as ever but they’re also Avengers, superheroes, as kick-ass as the men. Angelina Jolie, all 100 pounds of her, can flick a 300 pound villain over her gorgeous head. Women can do and be it all.

And men? Yes, athletes and superheroes, but not much else. They’ve been lame pathetic fathers in sitcoms for more than 20 years. The moral failures of male politicians has come to feel like the norm. Physiologically, men are critiqued for their single-lobed rigidity, for their lone-wolf leadership style, leading one social observer, Hanna Rosen, to her 2010 provocative cover story for The Atlantic, The End of Men. In my day, many girls wanted to be boys, myself included because the boys held all the power. No longer. Now it is men who want to be women: three times as many men as women are undergoing sex reassignment surgery.

I’m not explaining away Jenner’s transformation on the media-ized ascendency of women in our time, though it may be a contributing factor. That double image of Bruce and then Caitlyn is a fitting poster for the increasing gap between the genders. But even more than this, Jenner’s interview and his Vanity Fair coverage poignantly highlights that our sexualized obsession with gender is failing us.



This is my hope, that whoever we are, we will be known not for our gender category but for our mercy, our wisdom, our kindness, our humility, our grace, and our love. If we allow the Holy Spirit to do this in us, we will be exactly who we were created to be, inside and out.

Read more here.

"Interesting that the "intelligent" who are long on stupidity are always short on humility."

Gerard Vanderleun writes,

Interesting that the "intelligent" who are long on stupidity are always short on humility.

Given the Gift they use it to curse the Giver.

Poor fools. Poor prideful fools. Poor little limited semi-smart monkeys. Pick a fight with God? All their puny arms together are still too short to box with God.

Please read the rest here.

From the video below: "Today is the day you have been given. The only appropriate response to this gift is gratefulness. If you do nothing else but to cultivate that response, to the great gift that this unique day is, if you learn to respond as if it were the first day in your life and the very last day, then you will have spent this day very well."

"Look at the faces of people that you meet. In this present moment, in this day, all the people you meet, all that life from generations from so many places all over the world, flows together and meets you here like a life-giving water if you'll only open your heart and drink."

"Open your heart to all these blessings, and let them flow through you, that everyone who you will meet on this day will be blessed by you, just by your eyes, by your smile, by your touch, just by your presence. Let the gratefulness overflow into blessing all around you. Then it will really be a good day."


Thanks to Gerard at American Digest.

They call him Champ

Do you know about Denver Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey? Benjamin Hochman writes about Champ today in the Denver Post.

They call him Champ. The Broncos cornerback exudes all of the virtues of what fans desire in a champion. He's cool by not acting cool. He has this aura around him, but not because he's a self-proclaimed stud. It's because he's revered in football circles. It's because he speaks softly, yet with resonance. It's because he's actually so humble, it's hard to believe that someone with his talent isn't shouting about it.

Bailey is a 12-time Pro Bowl selection, an NFL record for a cornerback, but only now will he play in the only bowl that matters.

Bailey missed 11 games this season because of a foot injury. And when he did play, he seemed slow-footed at times, looking more Roland than Champ.

In the AFC championship game against the Patriots on Jan. 19, Bailey didn't just cover slot receivers, he smothered slot receivers. It was an eye- watering performance, the aging warrior mustering up one more fight.

Bailey not only is track-star stealth but freakishly strong, a rare combination at cornerback. He cherishes open-field tackling, which some diva cornerbacks look as dirty work that is saved for safeties. For years, quarterbacks chose to throw to a lesser receiver than throw to their best guy if he was being covered by Denver's best guy. In perhaps Bailey's greatest season, 2006, quarterbacks threw at him only 35 times. He intercepted 10 of those passes, allowing only four receptions. That's right, four.

Sunday's matchup is fitting — the Broncos have the quiet, cool cornerback, while the Seahawks have the brashest dude in the NFL. For years, everyone just knew Bailey was the best cornerback in the league. He didn't have to scream that line on national TV, as all-pro Richard Sherman of the Seahawks did after the NFC championship game.

Today will be the first Superbowl Champ Bailey has ever attended. He didn't want to go to one unless he was playing in it. Join me in rooting for him today.

Simple, free, where we ought to be

Which one won this year, quantity, or quality? Gerard Vanderleun remembers a gift he received that was one of his favorites.

Tis the gift to be simple, tis the gift to be free.

Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be.

Tis the gift to be simple, tis the gift to be free

To turn, turn will be our delight. To Thy turning, turning we come 'round right.

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free.

When true simplicity is gained, to bow and to bend we will not be ashamed.

Thanks to Ann Voskamp for posting this video.

Just make room, and ask Him in

Leslie Leyland Fields visited Bethlehem to see the spot where Jesus was born.

It was a miserable day, the day in Bethlehem. I found no peace on that piece of earth, no pretty little town lying still as it waited for a Savior. I found no still and silent moment, no light shining from dark streets and too much yelling coming from the church that lauds and lords his birth.

It was probably not so different then. Because of the census, everyone returning to his hometown, the hotel keepers were raking it in, the restaurants overfilled---so much money to be made. Every family rented out whatever room they had and charged too much. The noise, the dirt, the animal dung on sandals, everyone too busy making money and trying to live they paid not a thought to an out-of-wedlock baby born in the hay that night. It was a mess.

And Jesus already knows it.

And it will be all right.

Because this is exactly the kind of place

He chose to be born.

This is exactly the kind of people

He chose to live with,

and love.

You don’t have to clean it all up.

Just make room

And ask Him in.